A Mutual Understanding
by LZClotho
Summary: Summary: After "That Still Small Voice" Emma brings Henry home. One-shot. Complete.


_**Author's Note: **This is a little bit of something that just nudged at me to be written. Many thanks to fictorium for the once over on this._

**_Summary:_** _After "That Still Small Voice" Emma brings Henry home. One-shot. Complete._

**A Mutual Understanding**

Regina hadn't dealt with emotions like these in a crushingly long time. The woman struggled to contain it until she could be alone and Henry was safe in his bed. But in her bid for alone time to regain the scattered pieces of her control, she had allowed Henry to stay with Miss Swan as long as he was home before ten. Now, as the time approached, Regina worried Henry had talked that woman into another look around the mine, or worse... leaving Storybrooke. She was already losing touch with the feeling of his small body clinging to her – and she to him – in the aftermath of the rescue. Such hadn't happened in more than a year.

The wall clock in the front hallway erupted with a gong, signaling the hour. She dashed at tears gathering in her eyes, pulling anger around her as a protective shroud. She stared at the door, aware of her heart throbbing in her chest. Always so much pain. At the fourth strike on the hour, she turned away and reached for the banister railing. Looking up with resignation at the darkness, she threw her shoulders back with a regality she didn't feel and lifted her foot to the first step.

_Thuh-dunk_. She almost couldn't believe she heard anything. Her fingers flexed on the polished wood, frozen in place, indecisive. Her eyes looked upward to the dark second floor landing.

_Whomp_. Regina jumped as her front door did the same in its frame.

"Mayor Mills!" Emma Swan's voice echoed slightly, loudly.

Hand flying to her throat, Regina tried to catch her breath and ran to the door. When she reached it, her hands up to turn the deadbolt and pull the knob, it started inward.

"Miss Swan!"

"Regina!" The two women stared at each other from mere inches apart, frozen in surprise.

"Mom?" Regina's gaze shot down to where Henry peeked around a jean-clad hip. She saw the glint of the deputy badge on a leather belt.

"Deputy." Regina used the title to gather herself around, even as she stepped back abruptly.

A hand, cool from the outside air, yet warm in spots, as though thawing Regina's own skin, wrapped around Regina's wrist. Their gazes met around another chime of the clock.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Deputy. You're late."

The clock gave its tenth chime over their next breaths, air ghostly across each other's face. Regina was back at the mine again, staring into Emma's imploring green eyes.

"Actually, I'm right on time." The tone was dry, but to Regina's great relief the words had accompanied the release of her wrist and the blonde taking a step back so that Regina felt the room to breathe once again.

"Kid," Emma said, not taking her eyes from Regina's. "Why don't you head up to bed?" Regina caught the push the blonde gave Henry's shoulder out of the corner of her eye.

He gave a warning look between the two women then grabbed for the railing and thundered his way upstairs.

Once he was out of sight and the silence had fallen again, Regina turned from Emma Swan. "Good night, Deputy."

"Regina."

Overcome with a need to defend herself, Regina spun and spat, "You wormed your way into a job with this town, Deputy Swan. I am the mayor. You will never address me with such familiarity."

Emma's eyes wouldn't let her go. There was... something... the same something that had ensnared Regina at the mine.

"I'm not addressing my boss." Emma stressed the title slightly. "Right now, I'm reaching out to the mother of a little boy who was in mortal danger today.

"I'm reaching out to the mother of... my son." Emma's hand was back on Regina's wrist and then Regina was crashing into the blonde's sturdy frame, pressing her cheek into red leather. Soft hands slid over her hair and down her back. Comforting. She clung to Emma in return, squeezing her eyes against traitorous tears.

Emma murmured against her ear. "C'mon. Let's sit down."

Regina let herself be led to her own living room. When Emma settled beside her on the sofa, however, she was unprepared for the intimacy of the woman's hand on her thigh. The heat through her pantleg felt like a spell draining all her energy. She pushed it away. "Deputy –" She caught the dip of a dark blonde brow. "Miss Swan," she amended, "thank you for bringing my son home, but it's time for you to leave."

"You came straight here, didn't you?" Emma said, making no move to comply with what Regina had intended as an order. "Haven't talked to anyone about it."

Regina pushed away from the damnably knowing look in green eyes. "About what?"

"About the fact that you almost lost your son today," Emma replied.

Breathing harshly, Regina said nothing.

"I told Henry that he scared me," Emma spoke into the continued silence. "And if he scared me when I've known him all of three months, Regina, he terrified you."

Regina looked at Emma. In green eyes, she saw a mirror of her own emotions. She shook her head and pushed away at Emma's hands, but in the seeing, the knowing could not be undone. Henry's two mothers, one would-be Savior and one who was the Evil Queen, had reached a mutual understanding.


End file.
